Pop music was very popular in Britain throughout the 1950s and among the many who gained popularity during this era was Frankie Laine. Frankie was an American singer as well as a songwriter and actor who also grew in great popularity throughout the UK. He began his career holding concerts back in 1930, and he was dubbed with the title of being America’s number one song stylist. He gained a lot of other names at that time such as “Mr. Rhythm”, or some would call him “Old Leather Lungs”. It wasn’t uncommon to hear him called “Mr. Steele Tonsils” either.

Some of the most well-known songs that Frankie Laine was known for are…

That’s My Desire

That Lucky old Sun

I Believe

The Kid’s Last Fight

Frankie was born near West side Chicago US on March 30, 1913 and his real name was Francesco Paolo LoVecchio. While he was most well-known for his pop music, he also was found in other genres such as rhythm and blues, jazz, easy listening, country, and gospel as well as folk music.

What stood out that made Frankie so unique was his ability to be able to belt out his music without a microphone. Throughout his career, he had 21 Gold records to his name and his sales were more than 100 million. While he was able to perform well with any of the different types of music, he originally started out with rhythm and blues.

Something else that Frankie was known for during the 1950s was singing the title songs with some very well-known Hollywood film as well as TV shows such as Gunfight at the Okay Corral and for the hit movie Blazing Saddles that was nominated for an Oscar. For those that remember the old TV series Rawhide, they would remember Frankie’s recording for this series. Frankie’s music career goes back before the 1950s and even in the 1920s; he was getting noted by the older crowd as being a singer to be listened to. Mr. Lane passed away on February 6, 2007.